30-day guitar challenge, day 23: Get to grips with chicken picking

Get finger-licking good at hybrid picking

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30-day guitar challenge: Chicken picking has it uses outside of pure country circles and it's a great technique to have up your sleeve

After briefly indulging the egg-stremely powerful urge to kick off with a poultry-based pun, we should probably explain that chicken picking takes its name from the 'clucking' sound of strings bouncing off the fretboard, particularly when palm-muted.

The technique is also known as hybrid picking because it is a hybrid of picking and fingerstyle. Key players are Albert Lee and Johnny Hiland, who play mostly country, and John 5 and Zakk Wylde who fuse the technique into a rock, metal and country hybrid.

Your first aim is to identify a pick-hand position that allows you to alternate pick as well as fingerpick with your remaining fingers. It is vital that your pick doesn't collide with your fingers. You'll need to be able to apply palm muting, so keep reasonably close to the bridge.

Here are some stylistic licks that should help you get up to speed with this tricky technique.

Pull-off to an open string

Pull-off to an open string

Begin by trying this pull-off lick based on an E chord. The open-string G note clashes with the G#, but this is vital to the country vibe. Plectrum picking and fingerpicking are both used, so make sure you are comfortable holding your pick and picking with your middle finger.

String muting

String muting

Here, the emphasis is on two elements of hybrid picking: first, fingerpicking two strings instead of just one; and second, using palm muting to enhance the 'clucking chicken' sound. You mainly want to mute the fourth string, but try extending the muting across higher strings, too.